The Photogram - a History

“Captured Shadows”

“The shadows that things make
The things that shadows make”

by

Les Rudnick

What kind of shape does the absence of light have?

Photograms after 1900:

Photogram images prior to the avant-garde period between WWI and WWII can, in general, be considered traces, or documents of existing shape or form. There are, of course, exceptions, but after WWI, the experiments of Christian Schad, followed by Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy essentially changed the photogram from a process for documentation to one of creative expression. [Adolfo Martinez in PhotoVision 22, a quarterly publication, 1981, Arte y Proyectos Editoriales, S. L., p4]. See also Experimental Vision, The Evolution of the Photogram since 1919, by Floris M. Neususs, Thomas Barrow and Charles Hagen, 1994 Denver Art Museum].

The application of the concept of the photogram has its roots in the primordial moments of the history of chemical-based photography. During the early 19th century, as iron and silver based photographic processes were being tried, images were made by placing botanical specimens and delicate objects such as lace onto the chemically coated paper and exposing using sunlight. This was done as an alternative to drawing. Although, there is clearly artistic beauty in the arrangements of these objects in even the earliest photograms, it was not until the early 20th century that artists and photographers began to express new ideas via the photogram.

In 1918 Christian Schad (1894-1962) (German), who was inspired by cubism, began experimenting in Europe by making cameraless photographic images. Talbot had originally called these images “photogenic drawings” which were prints made by placing objects onto photosensitive paper and then exposing the paper to sunlight. By 1919 Schad was creating photogenic drawings from random arrangements of discarded objects he had collected such as torn tickets, receipts and rags [Naomi Rosenblum, A World History of Photography, 3rd edition 1997, Abbeville Press, p393].

Schad's new imagery was constructed by taking discarded unimportant objects and arranging them. The photograms created from these arrangements had taken on a new form and meaning not considered previously. These prints were published in 1920 in the magazine Dadaphone by Tristan Tzara. She referred to these as “Schadographs”. It was Tristan Tzara who called these images Schadographs to express a Dadist desire to create art from discarded objects. Schad's descriptions of his techniques were eventually used by both Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy in their more extensive explorations.[The J. Paul Getty Museum handbook of the photographs collection/ Weston Naef, 1995].

Man Ray (1890-1976) was born Emmanuel Rudnitsky in Philadelphia (August 27, 1890). He did not speak of his early years or family background and used only Man Ray as his name not wishing to reveal his given name. He was the eldest son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. In 1897 his family moved to Brooklyn, New York. He became famous because of his photogram imagery. His early influences in New York included attending the National Academy of Design and going to lectures at the avant garde Ferrer Social Center. During his formative years he was fortunate to have met Alfred Steiglitz, and later Marcel Duchamp, and Francis Picabia. Man Ray, became a colleague of Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia during the New York Dada period. In 1922 he experimented with producing images using only light and photographic paper. He called these images Rayographs, combining his name and the source of light and being similar to Andre Breton's "automatic writing". [http://anniehalliday.com/photograms.php ] His facination with the Rayograph resulted in an album of twelve images, Champs D licieux, created using this approach.

He produced these Rayographs by arranging translucent and opaque objects on photosensitive materials. He intentionally used objects that were three dimensional in order to create unusual shadows of the objects on the two dimensional photosensitive surface. His techniques included immersing the object in the developer during exposure, and using stationary and moving light sources. [Naomi Rosenblum, A World History of Photography, 3rd edition 1997, Abbeville Press, p394]. Man Ray obviously did not invent the photogram, but he breathed life into the technique and gave it a spirit. He moved to Paris in 1921 where he did professional portraits and fashion photography. It was during this time that Man Ray explored many creative aspects of the photogram. Curtis Moffat worked as an assistant to Man Ray during these years.

He was certainly one of the most influential artists of the 20th century . His work included innovative and experimental photography, painting, collage, assemblage, and film.

László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), American, born in Austria-Hungary (in Bacsborsod). He moved to Vienna in late 1919 after serving in the Austro-Hungarian army. He was wounded and at this time he decided to pursue art. In 1919 he and his wife Lucia Moholy began experimenting with the process of making photograms, and Lucia Moholy (Czechoslovakia) developed a technique they called the photogram, which is the term generally used today. This term was used as a direct comparison with the rapid direct communication of the telegram. http://anniehalliday.com/photograms.php . He later moved to Berlin, where he became associated with the avante-garde and Dadaists and created metal sculptures and paintings. In 1921 he met El Lissitsky and traveled to Paris.

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy had discussed the “better name” for the “re-invention “ of the process in a correspondence to Beaumont Newhall; “I would think that photogram is a better name than “shadowgraph” because – at least in my experiments – I used or tried to use not alone shadows of solid and transparent and translucent objects but really light effects themselves, e.g. lenses, liquids, crystal and so on.” [Louis Kaplan, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Biographical Writings, Duke University Press, 1995, p48].

Moholy-Nagy considered the “mysteries” of the light effects and the analysis of space as experienced through the photogram to be important principles that he experimentally explored and advanced in his teaching throughout his life. [László Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion (1947)].

Moholy-Nagy, Gyorgy Kepes and Nathan Lerner design a traveling exhibition in 1941 of photograms created by students and faculty of the school called "How to Make a Photogram." This exhibit traveled through the winter of 1947. [Taken By Design, p148]. Moholy-Nagy used many unconventional methods to create effects in his photograms that no one had previously considered or demonstrated effectively. For example, he is reported to have squirted oil into developer and squeezed oil between sheets of glass during exposure to the photosensitive emulsion. [http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bneiman/desktop/moholy.htm].

Moholy-Nagy produced photogram images from 1922 in Berlin continuously until his death in 1946. Chronologically they can be considered from three groups of images: Berlin (1922-1928), the Bauhaus period (1923-1928), his period of exile in London (1935-1937), and the images he created while in the United States (1937-1946). [http://www.fundaciotapies.org/site/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=471].

Moholy-Nagy continued throughout his life to explore the possibilities of light. Moholy had claimed that he discovered the photogram without knowing of the work of Christian Schad or Man Ray. Early letters from Moholy and others concerning the discovery of the photogram have been published [Andreas Haus, "Laszló Moholy-Nagy, Photographs and Photograms," Pantheon Books, 1980, translation from the German by Frederick Sanson pp 51-52]. Moholy-Nagy employed two distinct methods of producing his photograms. One method relied on the concept of printing-out, a technique which is done by exposing a piece of print-out-paper (POP) with the object placed upon it to sunlight or artificial light. Exposures are generally longer than conventional contact printing and the exposure eventually reveals the details and contours of the object. Exposure is judged visually. In the second method, which is generally practiced today, Moholy-Nagy exposed the photographic paper (not print-out paper) to create the shadows of intervening objects. The paper was then developed and fixed in the conventional manner. The first method allows for the determination of exposure in real time, whereas the second method relies on the combination of process variables and the intuition of the artist to create on paper what is conceived or desired beforehand.

Moholy-Nagy proposed that a photogram was like a light painting and in the early 1920's produced several photograms in which the two dimensional surface of the photosensitive paper was exposed using only light from a flashlight to produce images that exhibited three dimensionality. The illusion of depth was created in the two-dimensional space. These experiments were also expanded to include objects chosen because of their degree of transparency and their physical thickness. these features of the object resulted in unique projections on the two-dimensional photosensitive surface. He also experimented with the concept of motion in the photogram image by actually moving objects during exposure. These ideas at the time were contrary with all of the teaching on the photographic process - lack of vibration or movement during the taking or printing of photographic images. Moholy-Nagy broke the chains of conceptual limitations and expanded photographic possibilities.

Moholy-Nagy is considered a major influence on the history of photography. He trained photographers in the use of light. Whether or not he discovered or rediscovered the photogram process he certainly created via manipulation of light and object, memorable images based on the synergy of this combination. His use of non-rigid and non-structured materials as light modulators allowed him to make photograms which were dematerialized in the conventional photographic sense and more about transforming the qualities of light into imagery. He employed the facets of crystal and cut glass and veils as non-rigid materials and liquids as non-structured materials for production of his photograms.

I suggest that generally Moholy-Nagy photograms can be distinguished from those of Man Ray in that Moholy’s photograms are more about light while those of Man Ray are more about the object employed in the process or in a sense of something real or a metaphor for something real. Moholy’s luminograms are completely about light and design. Moholy-Nagy approached the light sensitive photographic paper as a blank canvas and used light to literally paint on the surface with and without the interference of an intervening object.

Eli Lissitzky (1890-1941) – born Elizar Morduchivitch Lissitzky, Russian, was one of the first to apply the photogram technique in advertising art. In 1924 Lissitzky designed a poster for Pelikan inks. He met Moholy-Nagy and others after World War I. Lissitzky was a leading member of the Russian avant-garde in the 1910s and 1920s. Lissitzky photographed from the early 1920a until his death in 1941. A significant body of his work during this period consisted of graphic design, photography and photomontage. During the period of 1922-1925 Lissitzky visited Germany and it was then that he began to experiment with the photogram.

Herbert Bayer (1900-1985) - was an Austrian-American graphic artist, architect and painter. He was born in Haag am Hausruch, Austria and died in 1985, Santa Barbara, California.

Lotte Johanna Alexandra Jacobi (1896-1990) was born in Prussia and lived in Berlin from 1925-1935. She left Germany and emigrated to the United States to flee Nazi Germany. She lived in New York City for two decades and then lived in New Hampshire until her death. She is very well known for her portraits and from about 1947 until about 1955 she created a variety of photogram and luminogram images. Many of these images she refered to as "photogenics"

Carlotta Corpron (1901-1988) was born in Blue Earth, Minnesota. She spent her formative years in India at an English boarding school and returned to Michigan State Normal School (now Eastern Michigan University). After her B. S. degree in art education she studied art education and fabric design at Teacher's College of Columbia University obtaining her M. A. in 1926. [The Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "Corpron, Carlotta"' http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/fcoda.html]. Corpron became a teacher at Texas Woman's University in 1935 and in 1942 she led a light workshop for László Moholy-Nagy. Just two years later, Gyorky Kepes went to Texas Woman's University to write a book and his interest in her work encouraged her to produce several series of abstract images that would become some of the most notable of her career. Her "Light Patterns" and later "Light Follows Form" series employed light to create patterns on three-dimensional objects.

Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971) was born in Austria and was a writer and sculptor. Hausmann was a cofounder of the Berlin Dada movement in 1917, just prior to the end of WWI. He also created photomontage. In 1923, Hausmann stopped painting in favor of exploring several experimental photographic techniques, including the photogram.

Gyorky Kepes (1906 - 2001) -Hungarian - born in Selyp, Hungary and educated at the Budapest Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After completing his degree he joined the studio of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and from 1930 until 1936 he worked with Moholy-Nagy. Photograms produced in 1939 utilized geometric shaped objects and images represented constructions rather than representations of objects of everyday life. Through Moholy-Nagy he was able to meet Walter Gropius. He was later invited to run the Color and Light Department at the New Bauhaus and then later the Institute of Design in Chicago, Illinois, where he taught until 1943. He became a main spokesperson for Constructivism and his interest was showing the relationships between art and science. From 1946 until 1974 he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and during that time (1964) he created the Center for Advanced Studies at MIT where he was the director until 1974.

Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) - German - born in Hanover, Germany, he was a student of the Dresden Academy of Art. Schwitters was a painter who worked in Dada, Constructivist and Surrealist genres. He was a master of the collage. Early in his career he called one of his collages the Merz picture. Afterwards he referred to all of his work as Merz. Forced to leave Germany during the years leading up to WWII, he left Germany for Norway in 1937. By 1940 Germany had invaded Norway and he was again forced to flee to England where he was interned. He lived in london until 1945 and then moved to Ambleside (English Lake District) where he was able to create new work due to funds provided by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Alexander Rodchenko (Aleksandr Mikhailovich Rodchenko) (1891-1956) Russian - born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He studied at the Kazan School of Art and at the Stroganov Institute in Moskow. An avant-garde artist, who began taking photographs in 1924. He worked first as both a painter and graphic designer. Later he began to use photography and photomontage to communicate his social concepts in a way he could express better through photographic methods. He was influenced by the photomontage of the German Dadaists and began to use these techniques as early as 1923.

Jaroslav Rössler - [1902 - ] was born on May 25, 1902 in Snilov near Nemecky, Brod, which is now Havlickuv, Brod [Jaromir Rössler Czech Avant-Garde Photographer, edited by Vladimir Birgis, Jan Mlcoch, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.] Rössler began to apprentice with Frantisek Dritkol when he was fifteen years old (September 1917) and he worked off and on with Dritkol until the end of 1925. Rössler created the significant part of his photogram work beginning in 1919, just after WWI. Dritkol was a prolific photographic artist and the owner of Dritkol & Company, the finest photograhic studio in Prague. Rössler also produced photograms in 1930, signed and dated on the back "Paris".

Several of Rössler's silver-gelatin phtotograms have appeared in print [Jaromir Rössler Czech Avant-Garde Photographer, edited by Vladimir Birgis, Jan Mlcoch, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.]. From 1926 to about 1929 Rössler made photograms using coiled and cut paper and images with hands with prismatic shapes, and others with geometric shapes. He also made at least one photogram of smoke in 1929 which is in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. He also used photograms in photographs to be used for advertizing (early 1930s) and combined photograms with Sabatier effects during printing of images of chess pieces(1978).

Rolf Cavael - (1896 - 1979) was a student of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Hans Albers. He created photograms during the 1920's using overlapping glass plates.

Jaromir Funke – (1896-1945) Czech, produced many light abstractions and photograms beginning in the mid 1920's.

Elfriede Stegemeyer - (1908-1988) - was born in Germany and created works in painting, drawing, sculpture, tapestry and photography. She studied photography in Cologne, Germany in the early 1930's She later traveled with a friend, Otto Coenen, a painter, to visit with Otto Freundlich and Raoul Hausmann. She later moved to Paris where she became a close friend of Hausmann. She is considered an avant-garde phtographer. Many of her photograms were of human hands alone or with other objects superimposed. These were silver-gelatin black and white photograms.

Dóra Maurer ( - ) Fényelvtan [Light Syntax] On the Photogram 2001.

Karl Straub (1900- ) German - was a student of the german Bauhaus. He was "inspired by the work of Christian Schad and Man Ray, transformed elaborate constructions of glass panes and objects into photograms..." [Suzanne E. Pastor, Photography and the Bauhaus, Center for Creative Photography, 1985, p18]

Theodore Roszak - best known as a painter, but became familiar with the work of Moholy-Nagy's work and began to create Constructivist works. He was a teacher at the Design Laboratory in New York city and like Moholy-Nagy, used the photogram as a technique to create images using light and the shapes of objects.

Timeline:
The practitioners of photogram art during each decade of the first half of the 20th century are as follows:

1920-1930sChristian Schad (1894-1962) -

Man Ray (1890-1976) - began making photograms in 1922 in Paris which he called Rayographs.

László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946)- worked with both staff and students at the Institute of Design (originally called the New Bauhaus) in Chicago, Moholy-Nagy and these other artists created a large body of photograms, luminograms and other cameraless images. many of his images were luminograms, whereby the image was created by moving the light source - in essence a way of painting with light to reveal the penetration of light through planes of the object intersecting the path of light.

Eli Lissitzky (1890-1941) – born Elizar Morduchivitch Lissitzky, Russian, was one of the first to apply the photogram technique in advertising art. In 1924 Lissitzky designed a poster for Pelikan inks.

Herbert Bayer (1900-1985) - was an Austrian-American graphic artist, architect and painter. He was born in Haag am Hausruch, Austria and died in 1985, Santa Barbara, California.

1930-40s
Lotte Johanna Alexandra Jacobi (1896-1990) was born in Prussia and lived in Berlin from 1925-1935. She left Germany and emigrated to the United States to flee Nazi Germany. She lived in New York City for two decades and then lived in New Hampshire until her death. She is very well known for her portraits and created a variety of photogram and luminogram images.

Carlotta Corpron (1901-1988) was born in Blue Earth, Minnesota. She spent her formative years in India at an English boarding school and returned to Michigan State Normal School (now Eastern Michigan University). After her B. S. degree in art education she studied art education and fabric design at Teacher's College of Columbia University obtaining her M. A. in 1926. [The Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "Corpron, Carlotta"' http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/fcoda.html]. Corpron became a teacher at Texas Woman's University in 1935 and in 1942 she led a light workshop for László Moholy-Nagy. Just two years later, Gyorky Kepes went to Texas Woman's University to write a book and his interest in her work encouraged her to produce several series of abstract images that would become some of the most notable of her career. Her "Light Patterns" and later "Light Follows Form" series employed light to create patterns on three-dimensional objects.

Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971) was born in Austria and was a writer and sculptor. Hausmann was a cofounder of the Berlin Dada movement in 1917, just prior to the end of WWI. He also created photomontage. In 1923, Hausmann stopped painting in favor of exploring several experimental photographic techniques, including the photogram.

1940s---Gyorky Kepes (1906 - 2001) -Hungarian - born in Selyp, Hungary and educated at the Budapest Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After completing his degree he joined the studio of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and from 1930 until 1936 he worked with Moholy-Nagy. Through Moholy-Nagy he was able to meet Walter Gropius. He was later invited to run the Color and Light Department at the New Bauhaus and then later the Institute of Design in Chicago, Illinois, where he taught until 1943. From 1946 until 1974 he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and during that time (1964) he created the Center for Advanced Studies at MIT where he was the director until 1974.

Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) - German - born in Hanover, Germany, he was a student of the Dresden Academy of Art. Schwitters was a painter who worked in Dada, Constructivist and Surrealist genres. He was a master of the collage. Early in his career he called one of his collages the Merz picture. Afterwards he referred to all of his work as Merz. Forced to leave Germany during the years leading up to WWII, he left Germany for Norway in 1937. By 1940 Germany had invaded Norway and he was again forced to flee to England where he was interned. He lived in london until 1945 and then moved to Ambleside (English Lake District) where he was able to create new work due to funds provided by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Alexander Rodchenko (Aleksandr Mikhailovich Rodchenko) (1891-1956) Russian - born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He studied at the Kazan School of Art and at the Stroganov Institute in Moskow. An avant-garde artist, began taking photographs in 1924. He worked first as both a painter and graphic designer. Later he began to use photography and photomontage to communicate his social concepts in a way he could express better through photographic methods. He was influenced by the photomontage of the German Dadaists and began to use these techniques as early as 1923.